ICANN Launches Webinar Series for EuropeGabriella Schittek

I am excited to announce a new ICANN webinar series for the European region, launching in August 2024. The series will merge the two established ICANN Training Series from the Nordic and Central European and Baltics region to now cover all of Europe. All presentations, panels, and audience discussions will take place in English.

The first webinar, "Identity Verification - Three Approaches," will be held 28 August 2024 from 12:00-13:00 UTC. Registration is now open.

We will still occasionally focus on regional topics, but now for a broader audience throughout Europe. The topics will continue to be a mix of ICANN updates, technical deliberations, and general Internet-related topics of interest. If you are working on something that you think could be of interest to the wider community, or have an idea for a topic, share your ideas with us and we will find a suitable slot for you!

The idea to develop a set of online sessions emerged in 2021 in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic as a way to regularly keep in touch with ICANN community members. The Nordic region was initially targeted to spur interest in regular updates and information sharing on topics significant to ICANN stakeholders. Due to the positive response, the initiative was then also rolled out for the Central European and Baltic region in 2022.

A broad array of topics has been presented and discussed over the years in these regionally focused sessions - from introductions on how the Domain Name System (DNS) works to DNS Security Extensions training and discussions on geopolitical issues. We also featured trusted community speakers from the Nordic and Central European region, as well as partnering organizations such as Netnod, the Réseaux IP Européens Network Coordination Centre, Internet Society, and the Council of European National Top-Level Domain Registries.

For the first webinar on 28 August, we invited three different organizations to give an overview of how they handle identity (ID) verification: one country code top-level domain (ccTLD) registry operator (.ee), one professional ID verification provider (TruID), and one ccTLD registrar (Loopia). This topic was suggested by our community, and it is very topical and timely in Europe. In October, the second Network and Information Security Directive (NIS2) will require European Union Member States to adopt and publish measures to accurately verify the identity of domain name registrants before the domain name can be registered.

We thank all partners, especially ccTLD operators and regional institutions, for their invaluable support in promoting the webinars.

We will share information about upcoming webinars on ICANN's social media channels. Alternatively, you may want to subscribe to one of our regional email lists: Central Europe & Baltics: [email protected]; German-speaking countries: [email protected]; or Nordics: [email protected].

Last, but not least, although this initiative is targeted at the European region, everyone is welcome to attend. I look forward to seeing you online, and we hope we can count on your help in promoting the webinars. Don't forget to register!